By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
April 11, 2013
WINNIPEG – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Thursday’s session on a mostly firmer footing with supply concerns helping to fuel the buying interest in the old crop contracts, market watchers said.
The absence of significant farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline also stimulated some of the price strength. Some light chart-based speculative and commodity fund buying also surfaced late in the day to help underpin canola values.
Some minor support in canola also came from continued concerns about a late start to seeding operations on the Canadian prairies due to adverse weather conditions, brokers said.
Read Also
Canadian Financial Close: Loonie up as U.S. dollar weakens
Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The Canadian dollar closed above the 73 United States cent mark for the first time in a…
Some light exporter pricing of old business also contributed to some of the upward price momentum, traders said.
The upside in canola was restricted by a small decline in domestic processor demand, with crush margins said to be deteriorating. The generally weaker price tone in CBOT soybean and soyoil futures also limited the upside seen in canola.
Some early selling in canola was linked to ideas that the commodity is overpriced and was in need of a correction to the downside. The upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar was also viewed as an undermining price influence.
Spreading was a again feature of the activity in canola and contributed to the volume total.
There were an estimated 21,036 canola contracts traded Thursday, up from the 15,866 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 17,022 were spread related.
No milling wheat, durum or barley contracts were traded during the session. Barley values were lowered by ICE Canada at the close. No open interest currently exists in any of these contracts.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
